Best Doctors Builds a $100M Business

How do you grow a company to $100M in revenue? Few can break that "sound barrier" but Best Doctors has done just that. A global provider of an innovative employee health benefit that improves the quality and cost of health care, Best Doctors has rapidly emerged as a $100 million business with the potential to grow ten times larger.

To understand exactly what Best Doctors does, read about the situation below: A patient flies from Venezuela to Boston, seeking a second opinion from a world-renowned physician, unconfident their local Venezuelan doctor gave an accurate diagnosis. Now sitting in the doctor's office somewhere in Cambridge, their new doctor walks back into the room, clipboard and file in hand, and surprises them. The original diagnosis was correct all along. What a shame they had to travel so far.

Would it not have been more efficient if the Bostonian doctor could confirm the Venezuelan diagnosis remotely? That question set Dr. Falchuk on a quest to build Best Doctors.

Best Doctors has been incredibly successful, and I recently had the chance to talk to Dr. Falchuk's son, Evan Falchuk, now president and chief strategy officer of Best Doctors. By dissecting how this company has reached the $100M marker, I see three key lessons that I will share over the next several days. I will also be hosting a FREE webinar with Evan on Monday, Jan. 24 at 12pm EST, and you can sign up by visiting GoToMeeting.com.

If you have ever dreamed of transforming an industry, and helping others in the process, you want to learn from Best Doctors. Here's the first lesson:

Build Moral Force

After Evan graduated from Penn Law School (as my wife did coincidentally), he grew restless in the legal profession. He felt he was missing "meaning." He spoke with his father about seeking a purpose, and his father said, "Come here for a little while." Evan quickly engaged with the company's mission—to make sure everyone gets the right medical care—and the impact Best Doctors' service has on individuals.

Evan experienced firsthand the stories of patients like a woman who had gone blind and was told she had a brain tumor. Because her employer was a Best Doctors client, she could call Best Doctors and ask for a second opinion. Best Doctors assembled her medical records and got them to the "best doctor" for the case (the company has assembled a network 46,000 expert physicians) and found she could have a rare version of Sarcoidosis, the collection of fatty tissue, which usually occurs in muscles but can sometimes occur in the brain. The diagnosis saved the patient from undergoing brain surgery for a nonexistent tumor. Her Sarcoidosis was treated and she can see today.

Stories like this move people. They give your employees a sense of meaning and pull the community to cheer for your success. They also show your clients that you exist for a bigger purpose than making profit. Best Doctors' moral force convinced Evan to stay with his father's little business. Over the subsequent 10 years, the company grew to 400 employees, has reached close to $100M in revenue, and served about 20M patients. Try preparing a client story that illustrates your company's moral force, your reason for being, and then propagate that story company-wide.

Author of Outthink the Competition and CEO of Outthinker, a strategic innovation firm, Kaihan Krippendorff teaches executives, managers and business owners how to seize opportunities others ignore, un…